Ethan's AP English Blog: Auscultation

Auscultation, an essay by Steven Church, is a collection of four segments, each centered on a chamber that is listened to in order to diagnose a situation. Two of these parts are about miners who get trapped in cave-ins. When this happens, miners are instructed to make noise against the cave walls so sound sensors on the surface can locate them. The other two parts are about using medical instruments to listen to the heart. Church is a respected author and college professor whose essays have been widely published ("Steven Church"). This gives him more than enough credibility in regard to writing an artistic essay such as Auscultation. As the essay first appeared in The Pedestrian, a quarterly journal of essays, one can deduce that it was selected for a well-read audience.
The first part deals with trapped miners who fail to make noise and are thus assumed dead. The second part is a sensory introduction to the idea of a stethoscope. In the third, Church examines the occupational symbolism and creation of the stethoscope and describes the first time he heard his son’s heartbeat. The fourth part is about miners trapped in a flooded cave who do make noise and are easily located. Research reveals that all of these stories are nonfiction. Auscultation does not seem to have a message deeper than “there is beauty in writing,” so it can only be assumed that Church aimed simply to stimulate the reader mentally with his interesting connections and emotionally with his touching stories.

Church uses one rhetorical device to solidify the connections within this essay. He titles the parts of the essay as a series of “Chambers,” both drawing attention to the cavernous subjects of the parts and alluding to the four-chambered anatomy of the heart. The author also brings the reader into the essay in “Chamber 2” by describing the intimate touch of a stethoscope in second person. In Auscultation, Steven Church is very successful in stimulating the reader mentally and emotionally. His web of connections within the essay, such as likening a cave to a womb after telling the reader about hearing his baby’s heartbeat in his wife’s womb certainly sparks interest in the reader’s mind. Finally, his two stories of the deaths and rescues of helpless miners bring emotion into the essay.